Sebastian Vettel revealed he was convinced Valtteri Bottas would beat him to victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix, admitting he felt he “had nothing♛ under control” in a tense finale. 

Vettel led from pole position and opened up a healthy buffer over Bottas during the opening stint, before Mercedes opted fo♈r an alternative strategy to Ferrari, pitting Bottas later than Vettel and putting him onto the medium compound, whi𒀰le Vettel switched onto softs. 

It led to a fascinating strategic battle for the remainder of the race in Bahrain, as Vettel de🧔ified the odds to preserve his ty♋res and pull off an unlikely one-stop strategy, with the Scuderia prioritising track position over fresh rubber. 

Despite being on tyres that were over 30 laps old,🐼 Vettel held on to cross the line just 0.6s clear of Bottas and seal his 4💖9th career win in his 200th Grand Prix. 

“I think I came on 🔥the radio with ten laps to go saying I had everything under control but that was a lie. I had nothing under control,” Vettel admit𓄧ted on the podium.

“When they told me the pace of Valtteri at that time I was thinking there was no way to do that. I was making the maths inside the car and with 10 l♎aps to go, that pace, he’s going to catch me. 🎃I really tried to keep it as clean as possible.”

The German, who extended his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton to 17 points, sa🎃id he thought Ferrari had lost the race once he realised Mercedes had moved onto a different strategy. 

“Both Mercedes at the end of the stint were very strong and well I think by going onto the prime they saw what we did by going onto🌱 mediums. I thought that was checkmate because we need to come in again.

“That was the original plan a🉐nd then we diverted and the tyres I tried to make them last and nurse them as much as I can, and it worked. But just. At the end of the straight Valtteri had a bit of a sniff but fortunately he ran out of laps.

“They were on the harder compound, meaning no more stop was necessary for them and it turned out to be a great battle for strategy,” he added. “It put us under a lot of stress and pressure. I think we had nothing to lose🐭 by staying out trying to win, rather than finishing third.🍒 It worked just, so really pleased. To get the win under these conditions is great.”